Friday, 31 August 2012

Marikana murder charged with Murder

The National Prosecution Authority has charged 259 arrested Miners at South Africa's Marikana mine with the murder of 34 of their colleagues shot by police.

However law experts have described the charge as "shameful" saying it flouts the Constitutional.

The decision to charge the miners comes under "common purpose law"
used under the former apartheid regime, and it suggests President Jacob
Zuma's government wants to shift blame for the killings from police to
the striking miners.

The decision to charge the miners comes under "common purpose law"
used under the former apartheid regime, and it suggests President Jacob
Zuma's government wants to shift blame for the killings from police to
the striking miners.

However Law expert Pierre de Vos said the NPA Act requires every member of the authority to act without fear, favor or prejudice.

"Instead they acted with fear, favor and prejudice to advance some or another political agenda, further eroding the little trust South Africans might still have left in them." Vos wrote on Thursday night

The former ruling ANC party youth leader Julius Malema also described the decision as "madness".

"The whole world saw the policemen kill those people," said Malema, who was expelled from the governing
African National Congress in April.

According to NPA spokesman Frank Lesenyengo The killing of the 34 was the most deadly police action since South Africa became a democracy in 1994.